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🔵 DOGE Wins Big
Citizen Frank
February 17, 2025
Good evening. It’s Sunday, February 16.
A federal judge in Washington on Friday handed Elon Musk’s government efficiency team a win by declining a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies.
Unions and nonprofits attempted to stop Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing records at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote in an opinion that the government was likely correct in categorizing DOGE as an agency, thereby allowing it to detail its staff to other government departments.
The world’s richest man got encouragement Sunday to bring his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into one of the most secure places in the world: Fort Knox.
Sen. Rand Paul called for a review of the vault’s massive gold reserves — worth an estimated $425 billion based on market rates — in response to the tech mogul’s musings about the stash.
Musk, 53, drew attention to a user who asked him to “take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there.”
At least nine people have died in the most recent round of harsh weather to pummel the U.S., including eight people in Kentucky who died as creeks swelled from heavy rain and water covered roads.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that hundreds of people stranded by flooding had to be rescued.
Beshear said many of the deaths, including a mother and 7-year-old child, were caused by cars getting stuck in high water.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei faced criticism and threats of impeachment on Saturday after he made a post on social media promoting a cryptocurrency that quickly tanked in value.
Milei promoted a new cryptocurrency on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) which increased in value to $5 (€4.75) before quickly tanking to below $1.
Argentina’s fintech chamber acknowledged that the case could potentially be a “rug pull” — a scheme where a cryptocurrency’s creators quickly generate real investment to pump up the value before dumping their own stake.
Dozens of police teams across Germany raided homes before dawn in a coordinated crackdown on a recent Tuesday. The state police weren’t looking for drugs or guns, they were looking for people suspected of posting “hate speech” online.
As prosecutors explain it, the German constitution protects free speech, but not hate speech. And here’s where it gets tricky: German law prohibits speech that could incite hatred or is deemed insulting. Perpetrators are sometimes surprised to learn that what they post online is illegal, according to Dr. Matthäus Fink, one of the state prosecutors tasked with policing Germany’s robust hate speech laws.
“They don’t think it was illegal. And they say, ‘No, that’s my free speech,’” Fink said. “And we say, ‘No, you have free speech as well, but it is also has its limits.’”
CBS journalist Margaret Brennan was rebuked Sunday after she claimed that free speech was “weaponized” in Germany to carry out the Holocaust during a back-and-forth with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The two sparred over Vice President JD Vance’s fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference where he slammed European leaders for censorship and said “the threat from within” posed the greatest danger to the security of the West rather than Russia or China.
Rubio was quick to defend the veep after Brennan asked about the remarks that irked US allies and Vance’s reported meeting with a far-right German leader ahead of the country’s chancellor’s election.
A San Diego migrant shelter is closing its doors and laying off more than 100 employees because of funding and policy changes under the Trump administration.
The Jewish Family Service of San Diego, which has operated a regional migrant shelter for over six years, announced it will close its facility and lay off 115 employees due to “changes in federal funding and policy.”
“Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) is working to meet the evolving needs of the community in response to recent and anticipated federal policy changes,” the organization previously said.
William Byron fortuitously missed the ferocious wrecks down the stretch at the Daytona 500 that knocked out contenders racing for the checkered flag and left him with a repeat victory in sight.
Still, sitting ninth with one lap left in an overtime finish, the odds seemed against the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet to escape the rest of the race unscathed, or even have enough time to pull off the comeback win.
Thanks to one more crash, Byron used a clean ride on his final lap to escape the chaos and race to his second straight Daytona 500 victory. He dodged a string of late-race wreckage that knocked out a chunk of contenders and sent the Hendrick Motorsports driver into victory lane Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway.
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